She cites a new study from Harbin Medical University in China, published in the July 2011 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers found that people who chew their food 40 times instead of the average 15 consumed 12 percent fewer calories.

“You might assume they ate less because all that jaw exercise wore them out and they gave up the effort,” she writes. “Actually, the study found that longer chewing produced lower levels of ghrelin. We’ve heard of ghrelin before.That’s the hormone that tells your autopilot that you are still hungry — so keep eating. They also found the heavy-duty chewers had more of the hormones that send the ‘Enough already!’ message to the brain.”